Published on Dec 3, 1997
For a band whose very name declares the positive, Yes has
weathered an astonishing array of ups, downs, partings, joinings,
battles, reconciliations, big hits and bigger misses in its now
nearly 30-year career. Viewed by many as the seminal “progressive
rock” band, Yes established itself as a musical force with
The Yes Album (1970),
Fragile (1971) and
Close To The Edge (1972), a trio of increasingly adventurous
albums built on a unique meld of fearless/peerless musicianship and
the ringing vocal harmonies of co-founders Jon Anderson and Chris
Squire. Through its 1970-78 heyday, the band’s exceptional
instrumental work served as a dependable musical anchor for its
space-age, spiritually- tinged lyrics, which frequently ranged past
meaning into pure sound.
For many fans of “classic” Yes music,
Going For The One represents the band’s last major
accomplishment before it sank into nearly two decades of internal
strife, line-up shifts, and unfulfilling attempts to pander to a
broader audience that, by the mid-’80s, preferred big hair and
small songs to music that dared to challenge the listener. Coming
near the end of a bizarre cycle that found the band’s compositions
first growing longer and longer (peaking with 1973’s meandering
Tales From Topographic Oceans, a double LP with four
side-long suites), then shrinking once again,
Going For The One offers a mix of longer and shorter forms
that rank among the band’s most accessible
and exciting work.
The opening title tune signaled an immediate departure from the
statelier (and more ponderous)
Tales era, kicking off with a blistering run on slide guitar
from Steve Howe, the band’s classically-trained six-string
virtuoso. The lyric took ethereal lead vocalist Anderson places he
had never been either, presenting an earth-bound subject matter
(competitive sports), and an unprecedented dash of humor
(self-deprecating, no less): “Now the verses I’ve sang / Don’t add
much weight to the story in my head / So I’m thinking I should go
and write a punch line / But they’re so hard to find / In my cosmic
mind / So I think I’ll take a look out of the window.”
Next comes “Turn Of The Century,” a strikingly beautiful
story-song (a linear story line being another new addition to the
band’s repertoire) in which Anderson’s delicate, assured vocals
play off Howe’s sublime acoustic picking and drummer Alan White’s
inventive percussion work. On the heels of this exquisitely soft
interlude, “Parallels” hands the baton to bassist/harmony vocalist
Squire and keyboard maestro Rick Wakeman, who launch the band on a
soaring ride on the twin engines of Squire’s driving bass figures
and Wakeman’s thunderous church organ (recorded live in St.
Martin’s Church in Vevey, Switzerland).
Side two (yes, I’ve got this one on vinyl
and CD) leads with “Wonderous Stories,” a harmless, airy
little piece of fluff that doesn’t do much for me but serves as an
affectionate summing-up of Anderson’s new age ethos for many fans.
Following it, though, is the album’s centerpiece, the closing
15-minute opus “Awaken.” An archetypal piece of Yes work, its
somewhat obtuse mystical-sound-painting lyrics are elevated by one
of the band’s most dynamic musical explorations, a series of
shifting mood pieces ranging from the early highlight – a series of
cascading guitar and bass runs from Howe and Squire under a chorus
of Anderson/Squire chants – to the spare, evocative, keys-and-harp
Wakeman-Anderson duet through the middle stretch, to the entire
group’s precision instrumental support of Anderson’s luminous
vocals in both the opening and closing minutes. Taken as a whole,
“Awaken” marries the band’s yin and yang as effectively as anything
they’ve ever recorded.
For many long-time fans,
Going For The One and its predecessors represent the musical
style they’d like to see the band — currently on tour with four of
the five “classic”-era members on board — return to. With these
guys, though, you just never know… which is part of the strange,
resilient allure of a band called Yes.